This invention relates to lawn mowers and more particularly to the rotary blade type cutting system which is pivotally attached to a motor driven tractor for cutting grass or the like at a uniform height either on a flat surface, an inclined surface, or along the border of a ground depression.
In the past, there have been various devices for cutting on an embankment or hill in a lateral path. By way of example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,465,505 in which a lawn mower is illustrated. The lawn mower has wheels pivotally connected to the blade housing so that the housing may assume various angles with respect to the wheels. The mower handle is connected to the wheels so that the wheels will remain vertical when the handle is held vertical. The pivot point between the housing and wheels is at a plane below the plane of the wheel axles to minimize unleveling of the motor. However, this is a push type mower which is specifically designed to prevent the mower from flipping down the hill or embankment by allowing the wheels to be maintained vertical while the housing is maintained substantially level to the surface being cut. This device would not operate along an incline or sharp drop off without cutting the grass too short.
However, the present invention is designed for use with a ride-on mower for use around areas where the incline portion of the surface to be mowed is not practically accessible for supporting the wheels of the mowing device, such as those inclined surfaces found around the areas of sand traps on golf courses. The present invention enables the wheels of the tractor to still be driven along the flat portion of the surface while allowing the blade housing to be tilted to the angle of the inclined surface in order to cut the grass on the inclined surface at a uniform height without shearing the grass too close. The blade housing can be returned to normal position which is in a plane parallel to the flat surface to resume cutting along the flat surface when necessary.
In the past, it has been necessary to use other hand tools or a manually driven mower to cut the areas around the sand traps and the like while using the ride-on lawn mower to cut the flat surfaces of the golf course. The present invention provides a cutting system which can be used to accomplish the cutting of the grass on both flat surfaces and the inclined surfaces, thus saving time and reducing the labor force needed to maintain such areas.